Overview

Tambo Colorado is strategically located where the narrow Pisco Valley starts to open up and emerges onto the coastal plains. Max Uhle, the “Father of Peruvian Archeology”, found Tambo Colorado to be set in a charming valley with ample water, fertile soil and ever-green trees and speculated that this may have been one reason for the Incas to settle here. The reason for the specific location of Tambo Colorado lies on the important Inca road that connected Chincha on the coast with the highlands and Cusco, the Inca capital. Uhle wrote in his letter to Phoebe A. Hearst on September 11, 1901 that he believes “[t]here is no doubt that the selection of this spot for construction of the ruins has something to do with the general line of communications with the valley of Ica.” (Protzen and Harris, 2005).

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Themed Collections

Site Planning
Tambo Colorado was an Inca administrative center: what was its role in the structure of the Inca Empire, and why was it put where it is? How was it linked to other Inca sites (Inca road system), and what mattered in its layout?

Architecture
What are the characteristics of Inca architecture? To what extent does Tambo Colorado satisfy these characteristics? How does it differ and why? What is the significance of the differences?

Construction
The adobe construction of Tambo Colorado is obviously different from the fit-stone construction in Cuzco and the highlands. How did the Incas translate the characteristics of their stone architecture into adobe?Why and how did the Incas use adobes in Tambo Colorado?

Colors
Tambo Colorado got its name for the extensive use of colors to be seen there. While this use of colors is not unique in Inca architecture, the color schemes here are so much better preserved than anywhere else that they give us a unique opportunity to study them and to formulate hypotheses regarding their meaning.